After Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry made a television horror film that should have become a franchise

After “Star Trek” was canceled in 1969, the creator of the watch Gene Roddenberry went through a period of prolonged struggle. So far, his television career has mainly involved the writing of westerns and cop emissions, generally finding stable concerts as a writer on behalf of. Not only “Star Trek” changed the perception of the industry of him – he was now a science fiction guy – but he was associated with his failure. In 1969, the cult audience of “Star Trek” was still quite small and the conventions of the fans were not yet common.

Throughout the 1970s, Roddenberry tried, without success, to take off other major television and film projects. In 1971, he wrote the ultra-sexual serial killer thriller “Pretty Maids All in Row”, “with Rock Hudson and Angie Dickinson, and although this film was crazy and pleasant, it was hardly a success. In 1973, he created a post-apocalyptic television series entitled” Genesis II “, but that never exceeded his pilot episode. Questor Tapes “, a drama on a hyper-forward Android, and” Planet Earth “, a second post-apocalyptic drama, this time with John Saxon. All these pilots were finally broadcast as a telefilms. If you have not heard of it, do not worry. They were not terribly popular and remain notes in the career of Roddenberry.

In 1977, Roddenberry decided to try something a little different. He tried to create a series of high -level detective that recalled Sherlock Holmes, with a faithful detective named William Sebastian (Robert Culp) and his smart acolyte Dr Hamilton (Gig Young). This time, however, the detective plunged into the world of the supernatural, cults and combat wizards. The series was called “Specter”, and it remains the most fantastic thing that Roddenberry has ever produced. “Specter”, like all Roddenberry TV shows, has never exceeded the pilot, broadcast as a TV movie in America and received a theatrical outing abroad.

It’s also a bit great. It is certainly ambitious.

“Specter”, as mentioned, this is the only time Roddenberry never written a television universe in which magic was 100% real. The character of William Sebastian was obsessed with the idea of ​​human evil, but knew that he came from the demonic forces. He had previously been cursed by the demon Asmodeus with perpetual chronic diseases, and requires help from Dr. Hamilton, alias Ham, to work on his last case. He must examine the machinations of the rich family of the cyon and an infection of a demon from which they seem to suffer. At the start of the pilot, Sebastian meets a woman whom he immediately plunders as a succubus, and he released one of the holy apocryphal books as a means of submitting it.

The investigation continues, with Sebastian and Ham traveling to England and discovering other Satanic shenanigans. A colleague, for example, is found sacrificed in a pentagram. This, in turn, leads them to Cyon Manor, where everyone behaves extremely strangely and the Manse has become a home for sin and vice. No point to guess that the family is under the influence of Asmodeus and that they have built a temple in the demon in the basement. One of the characters that Sebastian and Ham have met along the way could very well be asmodeus disguised – they simply do not know who. The incredible John Hurt plays a member of the Cyon Clan. Majel Barrett, the wife of Roddenberry, embodies the cleaning lady of Sebastian, Lilith, a practicing witch.

The “specter” culminated with a demonic ritual and a blood sacrifice that Sebastian must stop. Because he was a television pilot, we can be assured that he will succeed; The protagonist of a television series would not be killed in the very first episode. An epilogue implies, however, that Asmodeus had somehow escaped in an intact point and that the demon will reappear to cause more problems in Sebastian and Ham. The British “spectrum” theatrical cut was slightly widened to include more nudity.

The character of Robert Culp is fascinating. He was imagined as an American Sherlock Holmes, but the one who had seen some s ***. Indeed, there is a dialogue explaining that Sebastian once stuck to the empirical data and the sciences of his investigation, but could not explain the rise of horror and brutality in the world around him. Killers and monsters in series like the Boston Stranger, Richard Speck and Charles Manson could not be explained scientifically, leading Sebastian to the hypothesis that evil was, indeed, a force in itself. This led to its intense study of the occult and its DIY of demonology.

Roddenberry was not a religious man, and often rejected ideas of faith and religion of his work (“Star Trek” takes place in a largely post-religious future). It is unusual that he throws himself headlong into the supernatural as he did in “Specter”. The film was directed by Clive Donn (“What’s new, Pussycat?”).

Looking at the pilot, we can see why he was not picked up: it’s too scary. For television in the 1970s, “Specter” is quite intense, representing scenes of satanic sacrifice, demonic images and positive proof of the existence of demons. These types of images would finally become common on television (see the television series “Evil”), but in 1977, they were still annoying and terrifying. Roddenberry pushed the envelope. In the United States, the networks have long been notoriously prudent, and there was no way that the major television studios would have put a satanic series of this franchise in their queues on Thursday evening.

It’s a shame, however, because it is a great idea for a series. Culp and Young have good chemistry and unique characters, and we can easily see them develop their relationship during a multi-season series. There is a parallel universe in which “specter” has been picked up, has run for many years and has been restarted several times. It is a shame that we cannot live in this universe.